


Into The Mirror

by voleuse



Category: Jem and the Holograms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-10-04
Updated: 2004-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-05 06:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He can't say no to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into The Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to "Broadway Magic."

The first time Rio kisses Jem, it's at a party.

The lights are bright, he's bumped into more celebrities than he ever dreamed of meeting, and he's wearing a tux that Jerrica made him buy yesterday afternoon.

He's never felt more uncomfortable in his life, and when Jem falls into his arms while he's standing in the corner, he's startled to stillness.

She laughs, whispers him name in a way that's almost familiar, then tilts her chin up, her face just so, and he _has_ to kiss her.

When their lips part, he presses his face into her hair, and hopes Jerrica will forgive him.

He breathes deeply, about to explain this to Jem, when her scent registers in his mind, a combination of soap and a complicated floral perfume.

Jerrica smells the same.

He pulls back from Jem's embrace, stuttering, and something like horror crosses her face. She turns quickly, easily slipping away and into a circle of admirers, leaving him standing in the corner, alone.

*

 

As the days, weeks, and months pass, Rio's suspicions double and triple back on themselves. Every time he's sure that he knows the truth, every time he starts to confront Jem or Jerrica, he sees the other across the room, and can't bring himself to call the woman he loves a liar.

The women he loves.

One day, while Jerrica is at a meeting, and Jem is nowhere to be found, he finds Kimber in the yard and asks her, quietly, how they first met Jem.

Kimber's eyes slide away from his gaze, and she shrugs. Mumbles something about an industry fundraiser she and Jerrica attended with their father a few years ago, about an unknown singer who talked to her about songwriting, but Rio barely hears it.

He's known the Benton family almost as long as he's known his own, and he can tell when one of them is lying to him.

He just wishes he knew why.

*

 

He tries to end it, sometimes, when he thinks he can't take it anymore, when he thinks he's the one breaking into two people, and not she.

Every time he tries, though, a crisis intervenes, something life- or career-threatening, and it's not in him to turn his back, not on any of them, not for long.

Afterwards, Jem slips her arms around his neck, whispering that Jerrica will understand, whispering _trust me_, and Rio can't turn away.

He closes his eyes, breathes in her scent, and kisses her, whoever she might be.

He could never deny Jerrica anything. Even this.

Betrayal.


End file.
